The Obama Administration suspects a company in China of supplying components of a missile transporter to North Korea, despite UNSC sanctions on the DPRK. The Administration reported that it has raised this issue with the Chinese government. The missile itself was a mock-up, made out of layers of paper. The technology used in North Korea’s missile program “appears to be of Soviet/Russian origin, not Chinese” according to expert David Wright.

In light of the urgent need for coastal climate adaptation policies and the impediments to their implementation, Jonathan Verschuuren and Jan McDonald examined the early experience with coastal adaptation policies in the EU and Australia, with a view to identifying the important features of a regulatory framework for coastal adaptation. They concluded that an integrated approach to coastal adaptation law is currently needed to lay the foundations for the required long term strategy.

Decades ago, suspicions about Germany’s nuclear pursuits got others nervous enough to start their own. Now its planned denuclearization, a costly and high-risk battle, is also being watched anxiously. Within Germany there are worries that policy implementation is slow and haphazard, and the environmentalists are upset about burning more lignite and importing coal/nuclear power. Others are nervous that the fever will catch on in the US. Time will tell if people have lost faith in experts and editorialists.

With all of Japan’s nuclear reactors set to go offline in May, the government is pushing to restart the Oi reactors, arguing Japan faces a summer energy shortage. The OECD has also advised a return to nuclear power. However, local governments, led by the increasingly popular Osaka mayor, Hashimoto, oppose restart and pose a significant threat to the ruling LDP in the upcoming Lower House elections.

While undisclosed in Australia, the Afghanistan government revealed Australian plans for a strategic partnership for the period following the withdrawal of Australian troops. US and Afghanistan governments were concluding their own strategic partnership agreements, and the US was pressing allies to do the same.